e centre of a long mud wall, ventilated
by certain attempts at frameless windows, guarded by rough wooden bars,
we perceived a large archway with closed doors. Above this entrance was
a shield, with a device that gladdened my English eyes: there was the
British lion and the unicorn! Not such a lion as I had been accustomed
to meet in his native jungles, a yellow cowardly fellow that had often
slunk away from the very prey from which I had driven him; but a real
red British lion, that, although thin and ragged in the unhealthy
climate of Khartoum, looked as though he was pluck to the back-bone.

This was the English Consulate. The consul was absent, in the hope of
meeting Speke and Grant in the upper Nile regions, on the road from
Zanzibar, but he had kindly placed rooms at our disposal.

For some months we resided at Khartoum, as it was necessary to make
extensive preparations for the White Nile expedition, and to await
the arrival of the north wind, which would enable us to start early in
December. Although the north and south winds blow alternately for six
months, and the former commences in October, it does not extend many
degrees southward until the beginning of December. This is a great
drawback to White Nile exploration, as, when near the north side of the
equator, the dry season commences in November and closes in February;
thus the departure from Khartoum should take place by a steamer in
the latter part of September. That would enable the traveller to leave
Gondokoro, lat. N. 4 "degrees" 54', shortly before November. He would
then secure three months of favorable weather for an advance inland.

Khartoum is a wretchedly unhealthy town, containing about thirty
thousand inhabitants, exclusive of troops. In spite of its unhealthiness
and low situation, on a level with the river at the junction of the Blue
and White Niles, it is the general emporium for the trade of the Soudan,
from which the productions of the country are transported to Lower
Egypt, i.e. ivory, hides, senna, gum arabic, and beeswax. During my
experience of Khartoum it was the hotbed of the slave-trade. It will be
remarked that the exports from the Soudan are all natural productions.
There is nothing to exhibit the industry or capacity of the natives. The
ivory is the produce of violence and robbery; the hides are the simple
sun-dried skins of oxen; the senna grows wild upon the desert; the
gum arabic exudes spontaneously from the bushes of the jun